Reply To: Short & Sweet

Balak: Blame Game

Why did Hashem prevent Bilum from cursing Bnei Yisroel? Hashem controls the world, and nothing Bilum or anybody else says can force Hashem to do anything. Why didn’t Hashem let Bilum curse us, and just ignore him?

The Chida quotes R’ Shlomo Astruk as explaining what the problem would have been. If Bilum had cursed Bnei Yisroel, Bnei Yisroel would have blamed any suffering or misfortune that occurred to them as being the result of Bilum’s curse, without considering whether their suffering was actually caused by their own actions.

Pain is often Hashem’s way of sending us messages about what it is that we need to do better. If we blame others for the situation we find ourselves in instead of considering that what is happening to us is primarily the result of our own actions, we will never be able to fix the true root of the problem.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום